Assessing the Effectiveness of a Critical Thinking Program to Academic Success of Community College Student

The relational mixed methods study assesses success of a college-wide critical thinking program to the academic success of community college students. The research compared the pretest and posttest results of the California Critical Thinking Skills Test (CCTST) given to associate degree graduates during their first semester and last semester of their degree program who graduated during years 2011 and 2012. Additional dependent variable and covariant data were evaluated of these students which include academic grades (grade point average), gender, financial aid status, and race. The sample size of students evaluated were the associate degree graduating population for the years 2011 and 2012 which took the CCTST during their first semester as a pretest and last semester of their degree program as a post-test. This intact quazi-experimental group provides 188 students. This captured full-time students as part-time students would not have been able to complete their degree program in two years. This allowed the study to assess the scores before students were exposed to the college's critical thinking program during their last semester of their associate degree program. Results of the data collected were compared to display academic success of the same completing community college students when they began their associate degree program.;A literature review revealed little evidence the teaching of critical thinking by community colleges has been effective in increasing the academic student success of community college students. The outcome of this study indicated improved student critical thinking skills as set forth in PHCC's reaccreditation Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) topic as a part of its reaffirmation process which is a major component of Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACS-COC) reaffirmation process. The research compared the results of data from two assessment tools. These include critical thinking scores and academic grades with pretest and posttest evaluations from graduating associate degree students. This allowed the study to assess the scores after PHCC began its critical thinking initiative program. The intact group for this study is 188 students who completed pretest and posttest of the CCTST and graduated in the years 2011 and 2012.;This study was conducted at a small rural college, and the number of students and faculty participation can be limited. Additionally, the students who completed within the two year period will only be full-time students as part-time students would not have been able to complete within the two-year period. Some difficult-to-measure variables of students like motivation levels throughout their academic career were considered beyond the scope of this study. The literature review revealed this is an influencing component to student attainment of critical thinking skills. The study showed that college wide critical thinking program has a positive impact on students as related to their critical thinking skills attainment, but not increased GPA attainment. The demographic factors of gender, financial aid status, and race did not show statistically significant impacts on students' critical thinking skills success. Additionally, the critical thinking was mot mediated variable to student GPA. The results of this study opens for further questions, particularly in exploring the different approaches of critical thinking programs and also exploring additional individual demographic factors or other factors like student motivation that was not explored in this study.